What do you all do with your one year olds?

[LingDiLong]

I have my first full time child starting next week - eek! A lovely one year old boy. I've been looking at various activities to do with him, I want to keep it fairly simple, sensory activities, finger painting, playgroups, discovery boxes. Does anyone have any other good suggestions?

Thanks!

Has he Just turned one? At just one DS was still putting everything in sight in his mouth, so we didn't do much art and craft type things. At 1.5 he has largely outgrown this though.

We do a lot of walking, heaps of stories, lots of toy vehicles. Playdoh is good too now. And he now 'gets' make believe stuff so we have teddybear picnics etc. Cooking is good if you are making something like pizza or rhubarb crumble - doesn't involve eggs or raw meat and goes in the oven.

My youngest mindee is 16 months and she loves our local toddler cafe where she can crawl, climb, slide and run around for hours! She also loves singing, stories, sand and water play (she doesn't tend to put the sand in her mouth...) and wheeling dollies around in pushchairs! She is a sociable little girl and loves group settings where she can watch older children play too.

spaghetti painting (cooked spaghetti, suitable paint, small canvas block or thick card)

jelly play is fun fun fun

not keen on rice play for really tiny ones, as you say they put lots in mouth; oats better imo - a tray of oats with animals/vehicles/ tools like spoons and bowls and funnel

Thanks everyone. Raisin, I'd never thought of oats for sensory/messy play! We did jelly this week with another one year old who I have once a week. Oats are definitely going on my planner for next week.

Jolly, he is just turned 1 so still at the 'mouthy' stage. Maybe we'll make some crispie cakes or flapjacks with his older sister...

If you look at the EYFS Development Matters and 7 areas of learning and development there are many ideas there....also your knowledge of child development should guide your planning for a 1 year old as well as his chosen activities (child led)?

Agree with Italiana. If I run out of ideas, I look in the enabling environments column in Development Matters of the new EYFS and it gives me all sorts of ideas.

My DS is 13 months and at nursery he does:

walking through a "tunnel" (gap behind cupboard for exploring)
making music and singing
pulling faces in a mirror/any mirror games
playing with puppets

as well as all the usual. At home he loves tunnels and hiding, playing with play food (still eats everything), noisy toys, balancing stuff on other stuff, doing laps of the room.

making music with pots and pans
there used to be play tents with balls to roll and other activities they could do whilst holding on to the tent if necessary
also a giraffe toy and they put balls in the giraffe's mouth and then there are lights and sounds (something like that)
I think it was called Happy People and they have a farm (with sound effects), a dolls house (sound effects), these were also very popular with LOs.

This was the very popular playtent

musical ball giraffe and the other toys mentioned were Fisher Price (garage, farm, dolls house) all with sound effects.

Ah, I'm in Wales so we follow the Foundation Phase which I believe is very similar to EYFS in its principles (7 areas of learning; creative development, physical development, Personal and Social Well Being and Cultural diversity, Language, literacy and communication, maths development, knowledge and understanding of the world, welsh language development). I have a planner set up and always put which areas of learning my activities relate to. Although in Wales we have no requirement to follow the Foundation Phase, simply to show that we are 'aware' of it.

Where can I find the new EYFS? I've just been googling and can find information about it but nothing with specifics.

I suppose I'm just have a momentary wobble! I only started childminding in February and all my current children are very part time. This is my first time having another child all day every day, I suddenly thought, 'blimey, what will I DO with him all day?!'. I know I'll be fine really once I get stuck in.

Here

But they learn a lot through free play as well ...

Thanks dikkertjedap and you're absolutely right they do indeed learn loads through free play. It's amazing actually how much bog-standard free play you can link up to the foundation phase/EYFS.

We sPend the majority of the day outside ( rain or shine- dress appropriately).